Speaking to the pain and anger of the Irish people at the toll the economic adjustment has taken on their daily lives, the IMF’s mission chief Ajai Chopra was clear during a press conference today in Dublin: the end goal is to protect the poor and most vulnerable people in society while restarting the economy.

“We would all agree the key objective is to get growth going again, to create jobs, and bring down unemployment and that will be the true mark of success,” said Chopra.